BENGALURU: A day after the Supreme Court directed civic authorities in Delhi-NCR to catch, sterilise, and permanently shelter stray dogs to tackle dog bites and rabies, two college students who went for a morning walk were mauled by a pack of stray dogs, with one of them seriously injured.
The incident took place between 6.30 and 6.45 am on Tuesday inside the campus of Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics University in Jnanabharathi.
The victims, Soujanya G J from Haveri, and Rega Nikshitha from Telangana, both aged 20 years, are third year Integrated MSc Economics students at the university and were staying in the college hostel. An official from the BBMP Animal Husbandry Department in RR Nagar said that a pack of five to six stray dogs first attacked Soujanya inside the college campus. After this, the dogs attacked Nikshitha, who was walking nearby.
The students were rushed to a nearby hospital; both are out of danger and have been shifted to the general ward, the official said.
He added that officials have been instructed to trap the stray dogs and work on a long-term solution. “As per the information we have, there is no previous history of attack by these strays,” the officer said.
The police said they received a memo from the hospital in the afternoon. Soujanya sustained severe injuries to both hands while Nikshitha is receiving treatment for her wounds, the police said.